4 



HOSTIS HUMANI GENESIS. 

NGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES 

[Copyrig)^, i886.j 

by ^Martin. 

Kankakee Gazette Book Office. 

N 




HOSTIS HUMANI GENESIS. 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



" Man is bad enough with religion ; he would be far worse without it ; therefore 
do not unchain the tiger." — Dr. Franklin 's Letter to Tom Paine. 



" If there were such a place as heaven and I went there, and I found a God, I 
would commence immediately throwing up barricades. I would hoist the red flag, 
I would rebel." — Bergeret, Co?nmunist. 



In all discussions it is common to assume that there is a God. In 
all times, in all climes, men have, with rare exceptions, believed in the 
existence of a power or powers superior to man. They have believed 
that somehow this power had some thing to do with creating all worlds 
and all things that exist, and exercises more or less control over the affairs 
of these worlds, and that in some special sense cares for men, and is 
interested in all their works and ways. 

The idea so universal that there is a God or gods, may be all a 
fallacy, a mistake. That which we call Creation may be no creation at 
all, but the result of chance or accident. Perhaps this chance or acci- 
dent is the only controling power in the universe. Perhaps the world 
does not need any real God, can get along, it maybe, without any. All 
these are questions that I do not presume to decide upon. " They are 
too high for me." 

But whether there is a real God or only an imaginary one, all 
candid minds will admit that the belief in a Supreme Power, and our 
relations to such power, have in all ages exercised a great influence upon 
human beings. 

An atheist says: " Men made laws to govern the world, but they 
saw that much evil was committed that could never be brought to light. 
To correct this they feigned an All-Seeing God, who should be a witness 
to what might occur in darkness and the secret chambers of the breast, 
and a Judge who could bring men to account beyond the grave." 

This is fair, intelligent, candid. The idea is that the wisest and 
best of laws cannot reach and punish all wrongs; but that human society 
may exist men have to go further than human laws, and acknowledge, or 
feign, the existence of a God. Hence it follows that belief in a God 



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HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



is a real necessity to the life of society. Then, again, it must follow- 
that Mr. Ingersoll in trying to destroy religious belief becomes an enemy 
of his race ; and it is with him as with a foe to the interests of society 
that we have to do. 

The most intelligent unbelievers have admitted the beneficence and 
necessity of religious belief. Voltaire says : ''Religion is necessary in 
every fixed community. The laws are a curb upon open crimes, and 
religion upon those that are private." 

Bolingbroke says: "The Gospel of Christ is one continued lesson 
of the strictest morality, justice, benevolence and universal charity. 
Supposing Christianity to have been purely a human invention, it has 
been the most amiable and useful invention that was ever imposed on 
mankind for their good." 

Hume acknowledges that " The disbelief in a future state loosens 
the ties of morality in a great measure, and may for that reason be 
supposed pernicious to the peace of civil society." 

Plutarch says: " There may be a city without foundations, rather 
than a state maintain itself without belief in gods." These words are 
as true to-day as they were two thousand years ago, and they are in 
perfect harmony with that eminent historian, James Anthony Froude, 
when he says : " Nations and individuals alike fall to ruin when they 
forget God." And that they do fall to ruin when they forget God, 
Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre and Troy and the empires that have gone down 
and are buried by the dust of ages, all bear mournful witness. But we 
need not hunt among ancient ruins for proof of the truth of this state- 
ment. Within the last hundred years the world has seen evidence enough 
of the ruin wrought by the influence of godless teachings. Take France 
for an example. Nearly one hundred years ago the eyes of the w r orld 
were drawn toward that nation by the scenes enacted there. Another 
such a chapter of horrors can nowhere be found written in the book of 
time. It is known in history as the "Reign of Terror." A historian 
of to-day in speaking of the causes that led to those scenes of blood 
and rapine, says: "But if they had some real cause for this mad 
outbreak, it was also in part the result of false teachings. The age was 
infidel and godless. The tendencies of the public teachings of the 
philosophers, politicians and scholars of the day all tended to agrarian- 
ism, lawlessness and bloodshed." 

These few words tell the whole story. The French, under the 
teaching of these godless leaders, had come to think that there was no 
use for a God, no need of any religion, and they concluded to abolish 
both. The experiment was not an entire success, as may be seen by an 
extract from a journal of the time, "The Eclaire," which says: "We 
are the only people in the world that ever attempted to do without 
religion. But what is our sad experience? Every tenth day we are 
astounded by the recital of more crimes and assassinations than were 
committed formerly in a whole year. And at the risk of speaking an 
absolete language, we declare that we must cease trying to destroy the 
remnants of religion if we desire to prevent the entire dissolution of 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



3 



society." This lesson ought to be of value to us. Shall we be the 
second nation to do without religion ? Yes, if we follow our Ingersolls. 
These philosophic Frenchmen closed the churches, imprisoned or mur- 
dered the ministers, and as far as possible, banished God and religion 
from the nation, under the belief that they were giving France something 
better ; but instead of this they had, by removing religious restraints, 
turned loose the passions, appetites, lusts and selfishness of men, and a 
state of society resulted that was utterly beyond endurance. 

Again in 1871 at the close of the war with Germany, France, or 
Paris, passed through another sea of blood, and again we have clear 
evidence that godlessness was the producing cause. The period is known 
as " Paris under the Commune," or the " Red Rebellion;" sometimes 
as the " Second Reign of Terror." Any attempt to follow this " Reign 
of Terror" in detail would take too much time and space, and though 
it might be very profitable reading it is not necessary ; the only object 
being to show what men are ready to do as soon as they cast out God 
and religion, and to make plain the truth that those who would lead men 
to forget God are really most dangerous to society. -We can get at the 
real soul of the " Red Rebellion " by carefully studying their declara- 
tion or proclamation of the principles that were to govern under the new 
order of things. These were, first : A total denial of the existence of a 
God and a future State. Second : The prevention of any religious 
observances, and the treatment of ministers and priests as impostors. 
Third: The abolition of marriage, and the substitution of temporary 
connections to be dissolved at the will of either party. Fourth : The 
rearing of children by the Commune as in a vast foundling hospital, and 
the outlawry of all persons not living by the labor of their hands, and 
the appropriation of all property to public use. 

Did human ingenuity and depravity ever devise anything better 
calculated to turn society up side down, and bring in the reign of anar- 
chy, violence and terror? Very likely some friend of Ingersoll will say 
that it is not fair to class him with communists; that he believes in 
marriage and the rights of property, and all of that. Very well> we 
need not quarrel over that. It may be said of him, perhaps, as was said 
of another, that " He is the mildest mannered man that ever scuttled 
ship or cut a throat ;" but is there a man anywhere who will stand up 
and say that Ingersoll's teachings do not tend to produce just such a 
state of things as existed under the Commune? Men are sometimes 
better than their beliefs ; but these communists were worse, if possible, 
than their vile principles. They seemed to delight in atrocities ; they 
murdered for the very love of murder ; they tore down anything, every- 
thing, the more costly and valuable the better it seemed to suit them ; 
and they erected their barricades, and behind them they fought God, 
Christianity and Society. 

A New York Herald correspondent relates a conversation with 
Bergeret, one of the leaders. The correspondent said to him: ' f You 
have no religion of course ; but do you believe in the immortality of the 
soul?" "I believe in the immortality of thehuman mind, but not of the in- 
dividual soul. We live, we grow up. we fall and die as the leaf, and return 



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HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



to the dust from whence we came, and are immortal only in our children." 
" Do you believe in a God? "No." "Why?" "Because it is not 
republican. Because if there was a God he would be a tyrant. I fight 
God in thd universe as I did the empire in France. If there were such 
a place as heaven, and I went there, and found a God, I would immedi- 
ately commence throwing up barricades. I would hoist the red flag. I 
would rebel." Bergeret was not more atheistic than his fellows, and 
that they did not utterly destroy Paris was not because they lacked the 
will, but because they were overthrown before they could carry their 
plans into execution. The soldiers were ordered to charge their cannon 
with petroleum bombs, and to use wadding in their rifles dipped in 
petroleum ; and they had devised plans for blowing the whole city into the 
air by placing explosives in the sewers, which were to be fired by electric 
wires. Only the suddenness of their overthrow prevented it. 

Americans do surely know something of the evils that come along 
in the line of false political teachings. One man of commanding talents 
educated half of this great nation up (or down) to the belief of the 
right of secession, and I do not pretend to say that both leader and the 
led were not sincere ; but whether sincere or not, it was a very costly 
job, and we cannot afford to forget its lessons — one of which is beware 
what you sow, for those who sow the wind are very likely to reap the 
whirlwind. Ingersoll is sowing the wind. 

The communist, Bergeret, says: "God is a tyrant and I make war 
on him as on any other tyrant." Ingersoll says, " God is a tyrant, and I 
am trying to break the bonds that are binding men." At the infidel 
convention held in New York some years ago, one of its members, Dr. 
Shroder, said: " So long as man believes in God he is not free." These 
men, while using, as they naturally would, somewhat different forms of 
speech, seem to be in perfect accord as to belief, and this belief is God 
is a tyrant, man is a slave. And these men may be taken as representing 
the great atheistic, infidel, agnostic mob, or church, if they like that word 
better. Now what do these abolitionists mean by slavery? What do 
they mean by the liberty that they propose to give the world? Slavery 
means limitation, restraint, in greater or less degree. The physical 
universe is a wonderful, a stupendous system of slavery or restraint, or, 
which is the same thing, a system of law and order. 

It is a law of physics, that all undisturbed motion is straight forward, 
and that a body projected into open space would continue to move in a 
right line, unless retarded or drawn out of its course by some external force. 
Suppose the present order of things should be changed for one hour, 
and that single law left to operate alone. Sun, moon, stars, the whole 
host of heaven, would start off in a right line all out of their orbits. 
What would be the result? Simply the destruction of the universe. 
But this force is not permitted to act alone; another power is brought to 
bear, a restraining, a conservative force. What is called the centripetal 
motion holds the other force in check, and as a result the star is not 
allowed to rush off into space, but is restrained, is enslaved, and is made 
to run in a given orbit. Every star is forced by this slavery to respect 
the rights of every other star, and as a consequence of this slavery we 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



5 



have that wonderful, that beautiful harmony which pervades the physical 
universe. How it must vex the great soul of Ingersoll, as he reflects 
that all this is the work of the Great Tyrant; how very sad to think that 
he who succeeded so admirably in correcting the " Mistakes of Moses " 
cannot altogether correct the mistakes of the Maker. 

Then it is true, in a sense, that the man who believes in a " God is 
not free." Christianity restrains men, or makes them slaves, if that 
suits Mr. Ingersoll better. " Men are not free " to murder, to commit 
adultery, to steal, to lie, to defraud, to get drunk; in fact not free to do 
anything wrong. Ingersoll wants to destroy Christianity, and give men 
liberty to commit all these crimes, and all the other sins that human 
passions, lusts and selfishness can suggest. It is because he is working 
to destroy all religious restraints that he becomes the mortal enemy of 
the best interests of society. 

A story is told, and whether it is true or not it will serve to illustrate 
exactly the idea of freedom that Ingersoll wants to give the world. 
When he was in Milwaukee, there stood in his amen corner a lot of half 
drunken fellows. Ingersoll says : " I can prove there is no hell. " One 
of the party staggered up to him and said: "Prove it Bob, prove it, as 
nine-tenths of us fellows here in Milwaukee are depending on how you 
make that out." The story is told as a good one on Milwaukee. Yes ; 
but what a damning confirmation of the dangerous tendency of his 
teachings. There is no doubt that Milwaukee drunkards are very anxious 
to have Ingersoll prove that bible teachings are but fables, and every 
drunkard, everywhere, will hail him as a liberator; and not drunkards 
alone, but every murderer, thief, gambler, every liar, every prostitute, 
male or female, every man who wants to defraud his neighbor, every 
man who would oppress the widow or hireling, every man who is looking 
around to find some excuse for leaving the woman he has vowed to love 
and cherish, every woman that would prove false to the marriage coven- 
ant; all find aid, comfort, encouragement, when Ingersoll tells them 
there is no danger of their being called to account by and by. 

But is there a man anywhere who believes in truth, honor, honesty, 
sobriety, law and order, who does not see the corrupting tendency of 
all such teachings? - It does not seem possible. Would you put a teacher 
into your school with the belief that he would at every favorable oppor- 
tunity fill the minds of your children with Ingersollism ? It is not 
likely there is a board of directors in the land stupid enough for this. 
Why did not those who had charge of the business erect their works and 
pump water from Chicago river to supply the city? Do you go into the 
market and buy for the use of your family diseased meat and decaying 
vegetables? Why not? Do men (sane, intelligent men) build their 
houses close down to cess pools and marshes? And is the filth of Chi- 
cago river, and the exhalations from the Pontine marshes more fatal to 
physical life and health than Ingersoll is to moral health ? 

Suppose this mischevious genius should for the sake of variety go 
before the public with most outrageously obscene, vulgar discourses, how 
long would he be tolerated? Yet all the evil he could do in that direc- 

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HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



tion would be as one hour to a thousand years compared with what he 
is doing. 

A few weeks ago there was a convention of Freethinkers at Albany, 
which was addressed by Mr. Ingersoll. In the course of his remarks he 
said: ' ' Most people imagine that belief is very important, that if you 
don't believe in a certain form of religion it is because you want to steal 
something, that you like to eat your own child, or commit some fearful 
crime ; and yet it seems to me that religious belief never had much effect 
in making people good." This language is quite characteristic and is 
worthy of note. It may be said of it, fairly, there is not one true sen- 
tence or sentiment in it. Indeed, it seems utterly impossible for Ingersoll 
to state a point fairly. Perhaps this is the result of inherent dishonesty; 
certain it is that long practice has made him an expert in false statement. 
It is hardly possible to get more absurdity and falsity into one short 
sentence than this — " It seems to me that religious belief never had much 
to do in making people good." This is just equivalent to saying that 
belief is neither a power for good or evil. Now if we touch this state- 
ment at any point, its absurdity and falsity will appear. What caused 
the war of the rebellion? Beliefs. The South believed in slavery; 
they believed that the relation of master and slave was the best that 
could exist between the races; they believed the North was not dealing 
fairly by them ; they believed in state rights ; they believed in secession. 
The North also had beliefs. They believed human slavery wrong, a dis- 
grace to the Nation and age; they believed that it should be restricted ; 
they believed this was a Nation, and they believed in fighting for its 
life. Talk about there being no power in belief ! Why it is true, and 
will remain so for ever, " That as a man believeth in his heart, so is he." 

Take one case only of individual belief. A murderer standing on 
the scaffold said "I am guilty, doubly guilty. I have no apology and 
no regret. I have sought pleasure to the utmost at every sense. I have 
satiated every appetite, and gratified without limit every passion. I have 
done it deliberately and understandingly, for I believe there is nothing 
beyond the grave, and therefore no judgment, and no hell." This 
believer is commended to Ingersoll's notice, particularly because he is 
engaged in delivering men from bondage, and making of them just such 
kind of freemen as this. 

A few days after saying that religious belief was of no power for 
good, Ingersoll was talking at Cleveland, and among other things said: 
"I don't want to be taxed to support the Catholic church, for I think it 
is an unadulterated evil." Oh, you do think it unadulterated evil, do 
you? Well, if that church is an evil, greater or less, it surely is because 
it has certain beliefs and certain practices growing out of them. But 
you said at Albany that religious beliefs had never much power to make 
men good. The thought then, in its last analysis, is : Religious belief 
is all powerful for evil ; all powerless for good. Is not that rather a 
large sized bull for Pope Bob I; and it is not one of the kind that Popes 
usually make either, but rather belongs to the Irish breed. Evidently 
Ingersoll remembers Father Lambert. When the sores on his back get 
well he may be able to see some good in the Catholic church. 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



7 



In passing, it maybe well to warn Ingersoll that some of the younger 
members of his flock are not quite sound in the faith. A very highly 
inflated young agnostic said to me, "I believe religion is good for women 
and niggers." This will never do ; there is danger in such an admission. 
One step further and some one will say that religion may be good for 
very weak men in certain cases. These lambs must be looked after. 
Pope Bob should hasten to issue an encyclical, warning young disciples 
against heresies. Mr. Ingersoll's anxiety to belittle religious belief, and 
to make it appear to be an influence of no value, comes perhaps from 
this fact : If he should for once acknowledge the manifest truth that 
religious belief is the greatest power that touches or can touch men ) 
and as he finds himself trying to destroy that belief then he must see 
himself as he really is, a freebooter, carrying the piratical flag, making 
war on the moral commerce of the world and endangering the institutions 
of society. This may not trouble him greatly, for " Di grand eloquenza, 
picciola coscienza" great eloquence, little conscience, seems to be fully 
exemplified in his case. If Ingersoll should become a thoroughly con- 
scientious man, this would very likely get an experience and confession 
similar, in some respects, to one related in my hearing some time ago. 
The relator said: "I commenced preaching in a large eastern city. I 
saw, could not help seeing, the sin and suffering in the world, and wanted 
to do something to turn men from one and save them from the other. 
I had a very good opinion of human nature ; did not believe in the 
depravity of the race at all ; did not believe in penalties in the beyond ; 
and, of course, did not preach them; thought that what men needed 
were smoother teachings. I was successful in drawing large audiences. 
I worked hard, time passed, people listened attentively, but I was not 
quite satisfied with results. I did not seem to be doing them any real good. 
I worked harder. They came, listened, paid me and went along. I 
grew more and more dissatisfied. There was no less evil so far as I could 
see. Nobody seemed to ihink even of forsaking any particular form of 
sinning. One night, after preaching, I mixed with the crowd as they 
went in the darkness home. I could not help hearing some of the remarks 
upon the sermon. One said 'That was a fine discoursej wasn't it.'" 
The compliment did not please him. He grew thoughtful. Had he 
made a mistake? After all, were these " fine sermons " just what were 
needed? He worked, if possible, harder still. The people came in 
flocks, treated him respectfully, paid liberally, and went right along 
with their deviltry. He could not stand it. Discouraged and digusted, 
he gave up ; came West and settled on a farm, where he was living at 
the time of this relation. 

If the time ever comes when Ingersoll shall love men as well as he 
loves their money, then we may find him on the stool of repentance and 
confession. 

Mr. Ingersoll's teachings in their practical bearings touch us at 
every vital point, and their touch is like that of the samiel. Thought- 
ful mep find cause for alarm in the fact that thetnarriage relation, which 
has been regarded as the sacred cement binding society together, is 
seemingiyriosing its conservative power. Divorces are applied for and 



8 



HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



granted with an increasing freeality. It is said there are six hundred 
divorce cases pending in the courts of Chicago alone. Is it any wonder 
that a writer in the Century says: "The more the statistics of divorce 
are studied and understood, the more alarming seems the situation." 
No one can fairly call in question the truth of this statement ; but when 
the writer says, "the institution of marriage suffers on the one hand 
from the cynic and on the other from the sentimentalist," it becomes 
evident that he utterly fails to see the real difficulty. Probably there 
are no more, no less, cynics and sentimentalists than there were fifty or 
one hundred years ago, while divorces have increased an hundred fold. 
Every man who would not see society utterly dissolved and given over 
to the free lovers ought to give thought to the causes that are at work to 
produce this state of things. Look again at Paris and see just what men. 
will do when they cast off God and religion. Note the order. No God. 
No Religion. No Marriage. No Property. And note this fact, too, 
that men can never come to be free lovers and communists without first 
rejecting God and Christianity. Another fact, and this is the one with 
which we have to do mainly: Mr. Ingersoll is doing all in his power to 
make men Godless, Christless, and is thus doing all in his power to 
destroy the marriage relation and the rights of property. The wife of a 
free lover says: "We don't believe in a God." and she regretted that 
Victoria Woodhull was not nominated for the Presidency in 1872. The 
sum in this: When a man or a woman is fully divorced from God and 
Christianity it is very easy for them to become divorced from each other. 

And the same may be said in regard to the rights of property. Get 
rid of God and Christianity and all the rest is easy. Some years ago 
Prince Napoleon gave a dinner to a number of notable freethinkers of 
Paris, at which a vast deal of religious and irreligious discussion took 
place, and finally it was proposed to vote on the question, "Is there a 
God." Seven votes were cast, six noes and one blank. Among the 
voters was Mr. Proudhon, the famous author of the formula, " All Prop- 
erty is Theft.' ' Look at this formula the second time and see just what this 
godless Frenchman means. He means that every man who has by 
patient industry, temperance and prudence saved more or less property 
is a thief and should be made to divide with the lazy, shiftless and 
vicious. Such teachings and beliefs are possible where God and Christ- 
ianity are ignored and scoffed at, but never where Christianity holds 
control with human minds. 

Very likely it will be said there is no danger in our own country ; 
but there is danger. There is no more hopeful field on which to sow 
communistic seed than our own land. You say that the laws protect 
every man in his rights of property. Yes, but who and what protects 
the laws? We have them because public sentiment is christian. But 
suppose Ingersoll and such as he finally succeed in making this a godless 
instead of a christian nation. Majorities rule here, and a large majority 
of the voters will always be poor or comparatively poor men. Then what 
will there be to prevent them from making Mr. Proudhon's "All Property 
is Theft" the law of the State or Nation ? 

That convention of infidels that met at Cleveland the other day, of 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



9 



which Mr. Ingersoll was president, said they wanted to "secularize the 
government." Just what they want and how much of it one can hardly 
tell. They seemed to be in much the same frame of mind that the 
drunken Dutchman was when he said, "1 want to kill somebody." So 
these fellows wanted to do something to somebody. They would dena- 
tionalize all religion if they could ; probably they would shut up or burn 
up all churches ; they would drive all chaplains from congress and the 
state legislatures, from penitentiaries, from every place. A christian 
prayer at a funeral they would consider as so much nonsense, probably. 
They would not have any officer, upon assuming the duties of his place, 
recognize a God in any oath; neither would they have jury or witness 
acknowledge God in an oath. In fact, it is fair to presume that their 
object is to hasten the time when God shall not be in the thought of any 
human being. Is there a really sane patriotic man who wants to see 
such a state of society? We complain that men are false to high official 
trust committed to them. Are we likely to find men more faithful and 
honest when God is outlawed? 

Among the last words of one of the wisest earthly rulers were 
these: " He that ruleth over men must* be just, ruling in the fear of 
God." This is very old fashioned teaching, to be sure ; but is it certain 
that the world has no use for it to-day ? In the life of this nation there 
was never a time when practical Christianity was more needed than now. 
Never a time when the enemies of religion were more surely the enemies 
of society. All thoughtful men see the peril there is in the controversy 
between labor and capital. The parties are standing off and eyeing 
each other as mortal foes. And what is the real difficulty ? Just one 
word will answer this question, and that one word is selfishness. And 
as one word stands for the disease, so one word stands for a perfect cure, 
arid that word is Christianity. Apply the Golden Rule to the case. 
" Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them." I do respectfully ask Mr. Ingersoll, or any of his admirers, to 
answer fairly, would the application of this rule cut the whole quarrel 
up by the roots, and at once cure the evil, and remove all danger ? 
There can be but one answer to this. This rule is equally good every- 
where. It is the unfailing cure for human selfishness. 

At the very beginning of work in the new congress Mr. Wilson, of 
Iowa, introduced a bill to promote peace among nations. The bill 
authorizes the President to enter into negotiations with other nations, 
the object being to form an international tribunal for the arbitration of 
any difficulties that may arise among nations, and the President is request- 
ed to invite other nations to send delegates to a peace convention to be 
held at Washington at such time as he may fix, and making an appro- 
priation of $150,000 for such purpose. That is practical Christianity. 
" Blessed be the peace makers," and if there were more real, rather than 
nominal christians in congress, this bill would soon pass, and other 
nations moved by a like spirit would send their delegates, and war would 
be made an outlaw, and the hosts of men now carrying arms and study- 
ing the most approved methods of killing might turn to the arts of 
peace. Christianity would not only bring peace to the nations, but 



10 



HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



would bring peace to neighborhoods and families. It would make every 
man a good husband, father, son, brother, neighbor, citizen ; every 
woman a good wife, mother, daughter, sister. 

Again I quote that eminent infidel Bolingbroke : " The gospel of Christ 
is one continued lesson of the strictest morality, justice, benevolence, 
and universal charity." And this is the gospel that Ingersoll would 
trample in the dust. This is the gospel that he wants to make an out- 
law. Verily, this man is "the enemy of the human race." He claims 
to be wiser than the ancients, but what foundation is there for such 
claim ? Can his admirers point to one single sentence of his that is 
likely to enter into the literature or thought of the world, and be often 
quoted as a wise saying ? If every word that he has ever written and 
spoken was forgotten, utterly wiped out from memory, would any living 
soul be the poorer for it? There is no lack of effrontery; of audacity 
there is enough ; more than enough of shocking irreverence and blas- 
phemy. Pope's lines, 

"Where wit fails, pride steps in to their defence, 
And fills up all the mighty void of sense," 

to exactly apply to the latitude and longitude of Ingersoll, should be 
read thus : 

" Where wisdom fails, cheek comes to his defence, 
And he mistakes brass for common sense." 

He claims to be an agnostic, or know nothing, and it is plain that 
he is all of that. Yet he is so dogmatic that he has earned the name of 
Pope. Probably he is the only man who has lived that had the unbound- 
ed and abounding self conceit that enabled him to say that he could 
make a better bible than the christian bible. We look at him as at the 
Amazon; he has no peer. He is like Saul, only his self conceit makes 
him not only head and shoulders taller than all others, but just think of 
his immense weight. Why, in all the on coming years, he will be referred 
to as the Agnostic Jumbo. 

But seriously is not this self conceit very unbecoming and very 
disgusting? How nicely he must be fitted for bible making. The 
natural bent of his mind and the training he has had in trying to deceive 
courts and juries, all go to show that " he is the man." Now, in view of 
the fact that he does not even pretend to know anything about Christianity, 
would not a modicum of modesty be rather a becoming ornament for 
him to carry about, with him? The proverb says: "A wise woman 
buildeth her house, but a foolish one plucketh it down with her hands." 
One of these foolish women once said to Lord Chesterfield, " My lord, I 
have always thought that the members of parliament were a very intelligent 
body of men." " Well madam, they are supposed to be rather intelli- 
gent," said Chesterfield. "Then why don't they try and put down the 
bible," she said. "I presume they will do so just as soon as there is 
abetter bible made," was the sensible and rather settling answer of 
Chesterfield. Mr. Ingersoll began at the same end of the work that this 



INGERSOLL AT THE BARRICADES. 



11 



woman did; he commenced to pluck down the old house before he had 
a single board, nail or shingle for the new house. And so the proverb, 
and common sense, and prudence, place him with the foolish ones. 

Blind Sampson grasped the pillars on which the temple rested, and 
bowing himself with all his might, said "Let me die with the Philis- 
tines." So Mr. Ingersoll would grasp God and Religion, the pillars that 
support all the best interests of society, and tear all down in hopeless 
ruin. 

When the time comes that this Chance or Accident, Nothing or 
Nobody, that gave us these bodies shall so transform them that putrid 
meat and decayed and decaying vegetables,- fruits and grains shall be 
wholesome food ; when men shall drink at cesspools and sewers, and 
have good bodily health, then may we expect that the same Nobody will 
so transform our mental and moral natures that Ingersoll' s teachings 
will not be poison to individuals and dangerous to society. Never 
before. 

When Aaron Burr died it was said that earth had taken to her 
bosom the worst man that America ever saw. Endowed, as he surely 
was, with a high order of talents, this man is hardly remembered, is 
almost forgotten by his countrymen. But his name shall not perish from 
the earth. Oh, no ! but in the long living annals of infamy Burr shall 
have a place, and when all remembrance of his mental gifts shall have 
faded from all minds yet shall the memory of his vices live. 

Without being personally corrupt, as was Burr, Mr. Ingersoll is 
beyond all comparison a worse man for his country. While Burr debauch- 
ed individuals, Ingersoll would corrupt his country and the world. Candid 
infidels have in all ages, without entering the inner temple of Christian- 
ity, been led to admire the outer sanctuary. The wonderful teachings 
of the bible have ever been viewed with awe and reverence. Mr. 
Ingersoll finds in them only subjects for savage criticism, and coarser 
witticism. For all religious beliefs, those things nearest and dearest 
to human souls, he seems to have about as much respect as an old liber- 
tine has for female virtue. He gets as much fun out of a discussion of 
the problems of life, death and eternity as he could out of a case of 
assault and battery before a justice of the peace. Where the wisest men 
of all ages have walked reverently, and with upturned eyes, saying: 
"What I know not, teach thou me," Ingersoll, with a self conceit that 
no line can ever fathom, turns his eyes inwardly and finds there a supply 
of wisdom. Professing to point out the highway of liberty, his teachings 
lead to a state of bondage the most abject, the most crushing, the slavery 
of sin. Happy will it be for the youth of America if they shall be able 
to estimate Ingersoll at his real value ; if they shall see clearly that 
shocking irreverence, unbounded audacity, measureless self conceit, are 
not qualities belonging to first-rate minds, and shall turn away from him. 
Fortunate will it be for his countrymen if the influence of his teachings 
shall be buried with his body. Thrice happy if they shall lay to heart 
this truth: "Nations and individuals alike fall to ruin when they forget 
God." 



12 



HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 



And finally, without permitting sectarianism, or bigotry, passion or 
prejudice to testify in this case, we must allow impartial history and the 
wisest men of all times to give evidence, and the sum of this evidence 
is this : Religious belief is a necessity to the very life of civilized society. 
Hence as Mr. Ingersoll is striving to destroy religious belief, the verdict 
against him must be 

HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. 
(An enemy of the human race.) 



Note by the Printer. — In the interview on the 7th page with the retired 
clergyman a profane expletive was associated with the " fine discourse " alluded to, 
but was omitted by the compositor and not corrected in the proof. The omission of 
this expletive, " d— d," obscures the point made by the writer. The reader, how- 
ever, can supply it. 



LIBRARY 0rC0NGREq^~~]-r 

021 898 620 1 



